Chapter 2

She was sick, and she wondered how this disease worked. Did she look sick? Did her face and eyes show any abnormalities? Did she have dark sinful scars all over her skin? Was the word 'incest freak' written on her flesh? Did the blood flowing through her veins smell horrible? Could others tell that she was sick?

She gawked at herself in the mirror every day, trying to find any trace of anything. She scrubbed her skin till it turned red every time she showered, trying to wash off her sin.

None of this worked though. She was still sick, and she still didn't know anything about this sickness. And she hated herself.

"Hey Alex?" Max called, waiting for her to notice him and answer.

"Hmmm?" she asked absent-mindedly, instead of the usual annoyed tone. These days, she was usually annoyed at herself, and sometimes at everyone and everything else in the world. And sometimes, she just simply didn't care enough about this life to feel annoyed.

"Have you seen my defective watch?" he asked anxiously, praying that she wasn't holding it as 'hostage' and planning to use it for blackmailing him.

She quirked up an eyebrow at him. "Defective watch?"

"Yeah." He confirmed. "It was triangular, and it kept making ticking noises but did not show any time! It did not even have hands or time marks like a watch!"

Alex rolled her eyes. "Dude, that's a metronome."

Max scoffed. "Please Alex. I know what a metro gnome is. I met a gnome from Metro city last week. He kept drooling all over my snow comb. Yeah, I know how to make meanings from words."

A smile appeared on her face. Her little brother acting like that made her feel… normal. Like she was she again. Like she wasn't in love with her older br-

Her gaze snapped to Max's face, her eyebrows locked together in concentration. Her heart beat increased in trepidation, as she stared at him and tried to understand the effect it was having on her. She wasn't feeling nervous around Max, right? Was her stomach churning? Was her breath hitching?

She sighed in relief when she noticed that none of this happened. Apart from the intense fear in her mind, she didn't feel anything.

Max looked at her in confusion. "What? Is there something on my face? I was just working with some leeches." He wiped at his forehead, at his cheeks, then at his lips, and her eyes automatically followed the action.

She swiftly got up from the couch and ran away.

And she hated herself.

She wasn't feeling anything unusual for Max, nothing out of the ordinary at all. But that didn't stop her from being extra careful around him, extra conscious about herself, always maintaining physical distance from him, as if any moment she would go crazy and attack him, hurt him, do something that could make everything more wrong than it already was.

She was in love with her older brother, after all; and she wasn't sure how this disease worked. Would it make her fall in love with her other brother too? And then was she going to fall in love with her fa-

No. This disease could not grow. At any cost. Period. So she pushed everyone away, repelled them from her personal space, imprisoning herself in the isolated chamber of her room, saving herself and them.

She jumped at the slightest contact with Max, at the slightest brush of fingers, the slightest bumping of shoulders. There was no way a diseased person like her could be allowed to touch such an innocent person. Was if this disease was infectious? What if this disease affected Max? What if Max fell in love with- NO!

Just no.

"No hugs please." She whined, running away from her family, ignoring the flash of hurt she noticed in her mother's eyes. Her heart crumbled to the ground in pain, in helplessness. All she wanted to do was turn back and pull her family into a tight hug, to feel them by her side and feel safe. But she was in love with someone from her own family, and she didn't even want to think about what would happen if this disease spread.

And then she ran into Justin's arms, hugging him tightly and crying, falling into the comforting feeling of his heart beating against her chest, while her whole world was falling apart because of that.

And she hated herself.